tonight the administration formally recognized the syrian opposition. >> in fact, president obama did so himself tonight on abc "world news tonight." we also understand this comes a day after the state department declared one of the opposition factions a front group for al qaeda in iraq. this morning the treasury department follows suit, slapping sanctions on credited the group part of the opposition for role in helping take a large military base near aleppo from the assad regime. >> i think we have in mind now sort of shaping the post assad environment and looking at libya and some of the resurgents of al find you have have this there he especially what happened in benghazi. >> politically risky move, shepard. sheriffs clinton cancelled trip to syria meeting in morocco earlier today. >> shepard: developments coming fast now. there is word of possible progress in the fiscal cliff standoff. officials say president obama and the house speaker john boehner talked by phone tonight after each put new offers on the table. we are live in d.c. with the late breaking details on that. plus, we'